page_title: Intellivision
section_title: Intellivoice
hierarchical_section_title: Intellivision / History and development / Intellivoice
caption_attribution_description: The Intellivoice, a voice-synthesis module that attached to the Mattel Intellivision console and allowed for speech on some games.
context_page_description: The Intellivision is a home video game console released by Mattel Electronics in 1979. The name Intellivision is a portmanteau of "intelligent television". Development of the console began in 1977, the same year as the introduction of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. In 1984 Mattel sold their video game assets to a former Mattel Electronics executive and investors that would become INTV Corporation. Games development started in 1978 and continued until 1990 when the Intellivision was discontinued. From 1980 to 1983 over 3 million Intellivision units were sold.
  In 2009, video game website IGN named the Intellivision the No. 14 greatest video game console of all time. It remained Mattel's only video game console until the release of the HyperScan in 2006.
context_section_description: In 1982 Mattel introduced a new peripheral for the Intellivision:  the Intellivoice Voice Synthesis Module.  A speech synthesizer which produces speech with compatible cartridges. The Intellivoice was original in two respects: human sounding male and female voices with distinct accents, and the speech-supporting games were designed with speech being an integral part of the game-play.
  Like the Intellivision chip-set, the Intellivoice chip-set was developed by General Instrument.  The SP0256-012 orator chip has 2KB ROM inside, and is used to store the speech for numerical digits, some common words, and the phrase "Mattel Electronics presents".  Speech can also be processed from the Intellivoice's SP650 buffer chip,  stored and loaded from cartridge memory.  That buffer chip has its own I/O and the Intellivoice has a 30-pin expansion port under a removable top plate.  Mattel Electronics planned to use that connector for wireless hand controllers.
  Mattel Electronics built a state of the art voice processing lab to produce the phrases used in Intellivoice games.  However, the amount of speech that could be compressed into an 8K or 12K cartridge and still leave room for a game was limited.  Intellivoice cartridges Space Spartans and B-17 Bomber did sell about 300,000 copies each, priced a few dollars more than regular Intellivision cartridges.  However, at $79 the Intellivoice did not sell as well as Mattel expected, and Intellivoices were later offered free with the purchase of a Master Component.  In August 1983 the Intellivoice system was quietly phased out.  A children's title called Magic Carousel, and foreign language versions of Space Spartans were completed but shelved.   Additional games Woody Woodpecker and Space Shuttle went unfinished with the voice recordings unused.
  The four titles available for the Intellivoice system, in order of their release, were:
  Space Spartans
  B-17 Bomber
  Bomb Squad
  Tron: Solar Sailer
  A fifth title, Intellivision World Series Major League Baseball, developed as part of the Entertainment Computer System series, also supports the Intellivoice if both the ECS and Intellivoice are connected concurrently. Unlike the Intellivoice-specific games, however, World Series Major League Baseball is also playable without the Intellivoice module (but not without the ECS).
caption: The Intellivoice add-on
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